The present invention relates to mechanical drives for transmitting a drive to a roll of a machine of the type used in connection with the manufacture of paper. Thus the drive of the present invention is particularly suitable in connection with driving a drying roll or a press roll of a paper or cellulose machine, or a roll group of such a machine. This drive of the invention includes an appropriate reduction gearing for the purpose of transmitting power to a roll which is to be driven.
Various driving mechanisms which include reduction gearing are of course well known, such mechanisms being used for driving rolls such as drying or press rolls in paper machines or in machines which provide cellulose to be subsequently used in paper machines. With such known drives it is conventional to utilize relatively long assemblies of shafts and universal joints in order to transmit the drive to a structure such as a press roll at the press section of the paper machine. This long articulated shaft type of transmission is connected with a conventional reduction gearing which includes a motor capable of driving at a relatively high speed a shaft which is connected to the motor by way of a suitable flange coupling.
Conventional drives of the above type suffer from several drawbacks. Thus, these conventional drives undesirably include relatively long and heavy intermediate shafts, situated between the reduction gearing and the machine, occupying an undesirably large amount of space on opposite sides of the machine, thus requiring an extremely large room to accommodate both machine and the structure for driving the same.
A further disadvantage of the conventional constructions of the above type resides in the fact that the extremely long shafts in the transmission are exposed to vibrations and require special protection. Because of the use of such long intermediate shafts in the conventional transmission subsequent to the reduction gearing, such shafts operate at a relatively slow speed, so that calculations are unavoidably carried out with a torque which is of an undesirably great rated value. Moreover, the supporting structure required for such conventional transmissions involve undesirably high costs.
In addition, an extremely large amount of installation work is required when setting up the conventional drive mechanisms of the above type, and the cost of such work per unit of time is much greater than the cost involved in connection with installation work which is directly related to the production of the driving mechanism.
A further drawback of the conventional driving mechanisms resides in the fact that they create an undesirably large amount of noise during operation and this noise is difficult to suppress.